But, don’t take our word for it. Here’s the reality of the situation, as reported by Zero Hedge. Pay special attention to the “red” lines.

“It’s Probably Nothing”: January Truck Orders Collapse 48%

We have previously shown just how bad the situation in the US heavy trucking space – trucks with a gross weight over 33K pounds – was most recently in “US Trucking Has Not Been This Bad Since The Financial Crisis” in which we looked at November data and found, that “Class 8 truck net orders at 16,475, were 59% below a year ago and the lowest level since September 2012. This was the weakest November order activity since 2009 and was a major disappointment, coming in significantly below expectations. All of the OEMs, except one, experienced unusually low orders for the month.”

For those who missed the proverbial wheels falling of the heavy trucks, so to speak, the charts below do the situation justice:

So with 2015 in the history books, and as we start 2016 where the base effect was supposed to make the annual comps far more palatable, we just got the latest, January data. In short: the drop continues to be one of Great Recession proportions, manifesting in yet another massive 48% collapse in truck orders in the first month of the year as demand appears to have gone in a state of deep hibernation. From Reuters:

U.S. January Class 8 truck orders fell 48 percent on the year, preliminary data from freight transportation forecaster FTR showed, indicating that 2016 could be another weak year for truck makers.

FTR estimated that orders for the heavy trucks that move goods around America’s highways totaled 18,062 units in January. This follows on from a full-year decline in 2015 of nearly 25 percent to 284,000 units from 276,000.

“It is not looking to be a strong year,” for the market, FTR chief operating officer Jonathan Starks said in a statement.

Amid uncertainty over U.S. economic growth and a lackluster performance for retailers in the fourth quarter, trucking companies have been holding back on buying new models

As a reminder, unlike trains, which one can say are used to transport oil and coal, Class 8 trucks make up the backbone of U.S. trade infrastructure and logistics: what they represent is both domestic and global trade. Or in this the devastating collapse thereof.

Should one be concerned by this precipitous drop? Absolutely not: as the Federal Reserve would certainly say “it’s probably nothing” and blame it on the weather.

Copyright Information: This content has been contributed to SHTFplan by a third-party or has been republished with permission from the author. Please contact the author directly for republishing information.

Sorry for you bad start for the year! hope it gets better for you!@
NOW, the fed announced they want to test a negative interest rate! THAT should be sending people over the edge! things are VERY close to collapse !

I think there is a typo in the second blue box. “This follows on from a full-year decline in 2015 of nearly 25 percent to 284,000 units from 276,000.” That should be 376,000 down nearly 25% to 284,000 units.

“The U.S. currency sank more than 1.7% against six of its biggest peers amid concern that growth in the world’s largest economy is cooling.” Dollar drops, PM’s go up. Also note that last week someone “de-warranted” 201,345 ounces on the Comex. Ratio of paper gold to physical gold in the Comex is 542 to 1 now. When the music stops, there will be very few chairs left.

I wished I had the answer to that question. If I knew that, I would be in Vegas drinking whiskey and shootin’ dice. I have monitored this board for many years, but only posted a couple of times. There are many here much smarter than I am. Maybe they can chime in. From my prospective I am amazed that the game has gone on as long as it has. I think the depth of financial corruption world wide is far beyond what the average person on the street can fathom. Never underestimate the power of the Central Bankers. They can drag this out much longer. What you are starting to see now is a lot of talk about a cashless society. This will be the fix all for the Central Bankers. With that, they can simply change the numbers to “fix” whatever they want. Stealing us blind with negative interest rate and fees, while the politicians tax us into oblivion. Then again, history shows us that the resolution to all of this is war. One thing is for sure, this next reset will be quite painful as we are living in a world of borrowed money, with nothing in reserve.

I’ve never seen a president get away with such corruption as president Obama. He doubled the national debt and ran this country right into the ground. Absolutely inept. It is shameful and reflects badly on the American people that they did not impeach this corrupt president long a go.

Thats funny, I see as many trucks as ever on the interstate (I-15) trucks galore. All the stores are fully stocked in fact I haven’t seen a shortage of anything. Shopping centers seem to be doing ok, walmart parking lot is always full. One dollar store closed and 2 more popped up in there place. The industrial area here is chugging along and restraunts are doing good. Must be a lot of credit cards going on because people are still spending. I know it is a different story in a lot of places. Solar sales have slowed down but it is a bad time of year for that now. Cold as a rothschilds heart and almost 2 feet of snow and people are out shopping. My work is busy as hell and lots of OT so I just keep preppin. Hoping to find someone to trade solar panels for an oversea container this summer then I will be shittin in tall cotton 🙂

Marcus,
Sorry to hear about your wife’s injury.
My seed orders are starting to come in too. I doubled down this year, and will save seeds on everything. One of the things I will miss, winter seed catalogues.

can’t help but wonder if those seeds have any damage, being POST fukushima….wouldn’t THAT be something to do some research on, Mac?…i’ve never heard ANYone say anything about seeds grown after fukushima poisoned the world…or chernobyl, for that matter.

Acid,
I hear what you are saying about ethnic groups and violence in our society. May I illuminate some wonderful imagery for you.

My key point is that LEAD POISONING is still rampant in America. It is insidious and causes serious life long brain damage. Even in its lesser forms, one of the key areas of the brain it attacks is the center that controls our impulses, and decisions. People who had lead poisoning as children, tend to make really, really bad life choices, even deadly choices.

As you look at these maps you would be blind if you missed the obvious patterns.

America has experienced a wonderful decrease in crime and murder for decades. If you overlay the US crime statistics with lead levels in children, due to the removal of lead in gasoline, your eyes will be opened. That steady drop in violent crime over the last thirty+ years is not an accident, or coincidence. Remember it takes twenty years to raise a human child, so there is a long delay in reduced crime if lead is eliminated.

My point is when you say the average IQ of an African American is 80 + change, and the average IQ of a White American is 100, I don’t disagree with you. Lead poisoning that Democrats have no desire to correct makes it happen. However, since Democrats managed to corral African Americans in lead infested slums in America’s super-cities they also turned them into voter slaves, who Democrats would bring to the polls once a year using advanced propaganda techniques, so they could steal a nation politically.

I’ve trained and been neighbor to some incredibly bright African Americans, and Democrats should be terrified of the day African Americans figure out their modern slave game.

The pattern I described above, with documentation, is happening in every large city in America.

They poison people of all races this same way. American slums are rife with lead paint and poisonous lead pipes like Flint, MI. My parents were adamant about one thing when we were growing up, no lead or Mercury in our house ever, in any form. Now it makes sense.

How does this explain the low black IQ in other countries? Equatorial Guinea for example has an average IQ of 59. Blacks are violent everywhere they live worldwide and pretty much everyone knows it. Black crime rates are higher than whites everywhere in the world, no exceptions.

Anyone who has ever lived in a majority black area for any length of time will concede that blacks are violent, impulsive, and dumb. Even the nice well educated blacks don’t want to live around other blacks.

Acid is 100 percent correct. Both FBI DoJ crime statictics and census concludes that Blacks which are 17 percent of the US population comit and are convicted for 75 percent of the crime and gun shootings here in the US.

Obama needs to Ban Blacks not Guns. But the Commie ZOG Liberals put these cockroaches on Welfare and Food Stamps since the 1960″a so they breed and thrive, and produce nothing but generation after generation of more useless cockroaches that do nothing but feed and breed for their crime sprees. No doubt, Whites in my area of FL are loaded and locked for bear and are ready for the shooting gallery with open season and no limit or daily bag count. The vultures and Gators will sit in the gallery ready for black eyed pee brains buffet, ready to clean the carcuses clean. Bring it, We are ready.. Another 1000 rounds arrived the other day. I’m tripping over ammo boxes at my BOL. EVER see Green tips split a watermelon apart? Its a beautiful sight.

True but.
Just ask the people of iraq. They will quickly tell you that its non whites that murdered hundreds of thounds with air strikes from jets,then put boots on the ground to kill the people they couldn’t bomb. Its the same non whites who destroyed lybia and press destroying iran. Its the non whites IDEA to travel the world and secretly rip it apart, wait not so secret anymore. Lets rap this up. Take away the guns from the non whites so that the whites can rulte terrorize and kill them…….the whites are ruling and terrorizing and killing them now…but when the non whites start defending themselves this is what i read

“I’m getting death threats now from a poster named Nel.

It just proves that non-whites have much greater propensity than whites for violent crimes.

Only whites should be allowed to have guns. The white crime rate is much lower than that of non-whites.

If you had any kind of maturity, I would listen. But your melinnial mind can’t grasp that you are a danger to yourself. Cry baby cry, because you have nothing else to do, whine like a little squealing piglet and think, just for a moment, ‘maybe just maybe when Meals told me that my ideas put me in this situation’ (where ever you end up) that for once you accept that you got yourself there on your own. Second: you’re an idiot. 3rd your a bigger idiot than I thought. 4th How come you never answered my comments about being smarter than you? I’m a native American Indian with a math degree, Navy Vet, Air traffic controller, Technical documents on Tactical Data Links, Ballistic missile defense… You a whinny little shell of a human being. I truly feel sorry for you, sympathy. You will get your own karma: look that word up, it’s only 5 letters.

Common sense tells you that multiculturalism can only lead to balkanization.

This is baby boomer lunacy. All this bullshit started on the boomers’ watch. You assholes are responsible.

No wonder this country is falling apart. A country can only have say, a 10% minority at the most.

Diversity has never fucking worked anywhere. Tolerance is the last virtue of a dying civilization.

You cannot conserve traditional America without being a white supremacist. You just fucking can’t. Think about it long and hard. Non whites don’t even fucking understand what conservatism is. Non-whites or honorary whites have never built a decent civilization once in history. Never. Never. Never.

It’s needs to be socially acceptable to say that I only want to be around white people.

Why is the marriage rate at an all time low and the age at marriage at an all time high?

It cant all be blamed on the economy.

Feminism has to be stopped if you want to live in a decent society.

$700 million dollars spent on the 50 Shades movie? What the fuck is that? This 1% prick is supposed to be the most deserving of men? These cunts are idiots. They just need to be controlled by a patriarch.

The “manosphere”? The Return of Kings brigade are the pinnacle of manliness? These frat boys are capable of leading a family in SHTF?

I think this country has some very fucked up priorities and idols, and mostly we deserve SHTF in full force.

Like Rome we started out as very decent people in an agrarian republican society and degenerated into an empire, ruined by immigration, money inflation, and decadence. Rome devalued its currency in the reign of Diocletian.

It should be socially acceptable again to ostracize single mothers.

You should never work for a woman or let a woman give you orders in any way.

Bitches are hot and all, they are just so dumb that it’s hard to get on with them.

Life was so much better when they were chained to a stove. Work makes you pure.

it SOUNDS like you’re saying “women should be OBSCENE, and not heard”….yes, when a country pays it’s women to be baby machines, so there’s no more incentive to “work things out” with a man, and get/stay married…then there’s little incentive left to be monogamous….so we end up with a bunch of single-parent kids, effed up beyond repair. what we sooo richly deserve is about to descend upon U.S…..in 5…4…3…2…

BCOD
My husband died and I not only raised my son alone, I finished raising his 5 children. What red blooded American “boy” wanted to take on 6 kids… how many of those “indispensible” men said to dump the 5 kids? I would not. My kids turned out just fine, thank you very much. I did not get even one Acid Wretch Entitlement Boy.
Daughter of Eve sounds a bit like Feminazis and Sasquatch. Millions of men act like Ray Rice and Acid Etch. Not enough nice guys to go around. Check out the plank in Adam’s eye.
News Flash: God the Father designed women to be moms. No matter how FUBAR society gets… 62 men can own everything, Ray Rice idiots can beat women up. Bill Cosby Dads can lust after 500 women. Acid Wretches can play with themselves. Muslims can rape little boys and camels… women will be moms with or without you.

one of MY wives had 4 kids when i married her…and we added two more, then divorced…ten years later, now her son (28y/o)lives in MY house until he moves to new mexico to move in with his girlfriend. i have “taken on” the raising of a total of 10 kids in my mairrages….some of them are good kids, but not ALL of them. when a mother spoils her kids rotten, there’s not much you can do about it. when a mother uses social media and computer games for a babysitter, they ARE doomed….i can only control what they are exposed to for HALF of their lives.

BCOD,
Good to hear there is a man in the house.
When I married my husband he had 4 with the ex… plus 1 she had prior. I just figured the 5 of them had a right to live in their dad’s house. When my husband died, their mama got social security on 4 of them. If I had made a fuss she would have forced them to go home. They begged and cried to stay with me and their mom was hitting the bars looking for a man. I kept the kids, sold the house and bought a cheaper one to fix up. I stayed in the neighborhood to keep the kids in their schools. I did a house every year or so and kept in front of the bills.
They all did fine (usual bumps along they way) and have scattered across the world.
Not the easiest life but surely wasn’t the worst. I was fairly strict. No bullying allowed 😉 Everyone picked chores from a list. We laughed and played together. I worked my hind end off. That is when I ditched television. Who had time for such a worthless thing? Homework, dinner, conversation at the dining table.
As I have sized down my oldest (girl) and youngest (son) have become the keepers of the family flame. Japan, Germany, Mexico, North Carolina, Texas, Washington

D
Acid always talks Muslim about wimmin, why would he care? He likes boys.
He wants American women to be kicked in the face like Muslim women so he can’t abuse them while playing with his Boyz toy. Never happening. American women would shoot him dead.

Horses aren’t cheap. I’d keep fixing the same ones. They can go over a million miles. Heavy duty not like your pickup truck. Trucks are fleet vehicles too so that means they are made to be fixed easy and put back in service. After awhile the cylinder can be re sleeved. New trucks are garbage with emission controls. They break down more than the old junk. Maintenence is key for everything.

Sounds like you might have just a little experience. I agree, just keep the older model up and running. I’ve rebuilt the one I’m in at 1 million and running strong at 4oo thousand now. Keep your payments down and run as hard as your wife lets you:-). I can’t talk for others but, I have not slowed down one bit. I’ve been running two rigs full time.
Don’t let the news bring you to the side,
Run a tight ship.

I sold my ’92 Pete at 1.4 million miles and it was a much better truck than when I bought it at 400K – more power, better fuel mileage, so I know you’re right. Took several years to catch up on the previous owner’s deferred maintenance and then worked very hard to keep it in top condition. Never failed an inspection, and nearly every scale I crossed frequently came to recognize my truck & wave me on through because they knew chances were very good they’d find no violations. Sold the rest of my trucks in ’07 because I had a fantastic offer to stay home and punch a time clock. Ended up with a much stronger marriage and more money in my pocket. Retired now and don’t miss the road at all. Good luck.

Asshat, how right you are. I just got some more parts to keep the ol ford going, got 240K on it and runs like a champ. It is electronic ignition and fuel injected though 🙁 . I had a 68 chevy 4×4 but that thing nickel and dimed me to death. Also used to have a 67 El Camino with 327 and that sucker would scoot! If I could have any vehicle back from my past it would be my old 72 Landcruiser. Tough as a tank and so easy to work on and reliable.

That’s the thing, John, they have no love. They are trying to be “right” and “wiser” than their counterparts, not loving and caring. There is no love in those hearts. Our Lord gave us the word that love is patient and kind. Love keeps no record of wrongs. Love always hopes and love never fails.
We were warned that the love of many would grow cold. It has.
Some, like these here, will be eating their own “seed” to save themselves and will justify it by saying they were “miniature freeloaders who would have died anyway”.

I prepped for my son and his family even though he and his wife thought it was silly. They hit a rough spot and are now prepping. Disagreement isn’t “not love” and those admonitions are meant to have the Christian look into their own heart, not to sneer and condemn your family to death because your heart is hard. Pray in your closet to get rewarded in heaven, because endless public protestations of faith and the perceived admiration is the only reward promised. Not trying to talk mean to you Sara, I know it is frustrating. Joseph saved his bothers who sold him into slavery and God saved the land of Egypt.
I chose to love my family. I didn’t die from a bit of teasing. I also did not set up resistance by denigrating or trying to force my son to his knees in obedience.
if you cannot afford to store a couple bags of rice and beans… then eat while your child starves. Serves em right the unloving things that they are.

I drive the same drive every day been doing this 90 mile round trip every day for the past 19 years , I used to pull flat beds when I was younger, and heavy equipment , so I pay attention to the trucking , and whats on the road around me, Im no longer pulling for anyone as have owned my own heavy industrial construction company for many years

in years past my highway run was always full of big rigs

within the last month or more.. significant drop in Big Rig traffic

and a significant drop in my business too

what ever comes along to rock this boat now,, will definitely tip it over and spill a collapse of sorts, all over this world

ya dam sure better be ready for it, ’cause there aint no stopping it , it seems ..I’m sure Oblunder is hoping like hell that the PAB will hold it off until after the new stooge is in place

guess we will get to see, weather we like it or not ..
but hey .. “you can keep your Doctor”

Enemy,
My seed and tree orders are late coming in. No notification that they won’t show… but they are running late. Because of KY Mom, I knew to get it turned in before it is too late, thank you KY Mom!
I hope your own job stays safe as long as possible.

Foxglove666,
Acid is getting beat up bad in his regular life and gets online to scream his impotence. Shame he can’t just walk away from his abuser. Maybe that’s why he’s calling for an Aryan Nation somewhere ELSE… a colored boy is putting the hurt on him right here in the US. Therapy might help him out.

A good friend of mine drives long haul. What he is telling me is that there are very little to haul. I was told that there are some but they want you to do it for almost nothing. He told me that right now it is the slowest that he has ever seen it in 40 years of driving.

He told me that FOOD is the only thing that is moving at a high volume, or on a regular basis. Everything else is hit and miss.

Having put in about 1 and 1/2 million miles behind the wheel of a semi, (another 1/2 million behind wheel of local straight trucks) I know a little about the business. I also worked in the trucking company offices for a while as safety and compliance/log book compilations and violations counselor, as well as Dispatcher and customer service and route coordinator.

Nothing about the desk jobs ever tripped my trigger, so my last job was weekly coast to coast driver and driver trainer for team operations.

What I learned in my 17 years in the business is this..in relation to the article.

There is always slow times on most freight during the winter months and especially right before and right after Christmas. The lull usually lasts until the period of March/April, in every year.
Yes, there is probably less being shipped now, in 2016, than in previous years because there is always another factor that has been noticed that affects purchasing and slowing down of the economy, and it is called “an election year”.

Most people know nothing about the stagnation during an election year, but; a well seasoned trucker and trucking company does know this.

The rule does not apply to most food distributors, because the more people are closed indoors for cold nasty weather, the more they eat.

I would make turns in LA, and S Francisco area, back to the East Coast, regularly for nine months of the year, without more than a half day of waiting on a back haul. During late December and January/February, I had to wait sometimes as much as three days in LA Metropolis waiting on a back haul. Most times during those months, the back haul paid barely enough to cover the driver’s pay and fuel.

I talked to one middle aged Mexican Independent Owner Operator in LA, that said he had been doing this since he was old enough to get his CDLs. He takes a hit for about three months on pay loads out of California, but makes it up on the back hauls from the Northeast states, that pay big profits.

I agree that some of the freight shipments are off, but you have to look at the big picture and when such reports as these are coming out. It hasn’t got as bad as some want us to believe just yet.

When you see companies all across the USSAG, start having absolute auctions on their equipment/trucks/trailers, then you can say it has gotten bad.

Foxglove and I have worked things out and I apologized. I also apologize to everyone for my use of vulgar language. I didn’t think there was any other way to deal with AE. I regret using that language now.

Move to Cuba if you petulant children hate the freedom of speech. You people don’t belong to the liberty movement in any way, shape, or form. You women and minorities expect the world to bend to suit your asshole little whims, you think yourselves to be special snowflakes.

It’s because of the example of assholes like you that 40% of millennials think hate speech should come with criminal penalties.

Our culture is being ruined by the political correctness spewed by you rot.

Acid has come a long way in the last couple years. I respect everyones right to free speech even if I don’t like it. If you don’t like it then skip his posts. Banning is the work of petty tyrants. Either you want a free speech forum or you are a statist anti freedom hypocrite. Go to a forum that bans people, I’m sure you will get more info there lol.

i think if the cocksucken foulmouthed motherfucker didn’t use so much profanity, more people would see his message…at least the prick has done less all-caps lately. SOMEtimes people tell ME the same sort of things, but i just consider the source…they don’t know what the fuck they’re talkin’ ’bout.

I for one, am glad AE has been on this site, earlier on he was Eisen (kraut).

anyways, he has showed us what it is like to be gay, for the most part. I have always heard that queers are sad people inside, unless they are engaged in their sexual perversions. Most have real emotional issues, especially with women.

Those like acid that have too much time on their hands, are really miserable people. Some that are in serious gay relationships seem more in control, but their relationships are always on the ropes and have a high percentage of playing the field, and then breaking it off.

The very lucky ones realize they will never have peace as long as they continue living a sinful abominable lifestyle. When they get serious and turn away from that lifestyle and find Jesus, then their lives start having real meaning.

It seems most queers are self loving pricks that are only concerned with getting satisfied. It is sad that they risk throwing away their souls for self gratification. I won’t get into the whole difference of the butch dike lesbian thing.

I have learned a lot from ole AE, and have caused him some tensions, and downright madness at times, but it was only for his own good. I was hoping he was really sincere about his walk with Jesus, but it requires much more than eliminating the fudge packing practices, and the head bobbing.

Acid insults everyone at one time or another. He’s doing a Trump and saying some really non PC things. Just walk away, and don’t engage if you can’t take the heat, because he will warm your heart whether you like it or not.

I’ve noticed if given 2+2 acid will come up with 4, and then he’ll insult you just for fun anyway.

Such is freedom of speech. I very much appreciate SHTFPlan’s tolerance of all of us. I’d hate to see that lost. On other sites I’ve had trolls stalk me and flag me to death.

One suggestion to all, don’t drink and post! Really, you’ll read and regret the craziest stuff the next day!

I am not white and a female, but I am no fan of censoring people. While I find AE’s posts to be vile, mean spirited, derogatory, and generally offensive (and I am nearly IMPOSSIBLE to offend), he has a right to say whatever he wants… There’s enough censorship out there without adding one more example. I get a lot out of the comments here, and once you start censoring one person it opens the gates to censoring others. Just my 2 cents. Prep on.

No, he’s well beyond Trump, he’s downright ridiculous. I couldn’t care less about the swear words, I use profanity often, it’s the vicious attacks on various people, or all of us in general that bothers me. He’s not just cussing and being non-pc, he’s cussing AT us like we’re filth. I often wonder if he hates us so much, why come here?

NeLs, I’ve cracked on him quite a bit since he’s been on here and I vote that he stays (if that means anything). Just because I don’t agree with very much he says don’t give ME the right to decide if he posts here or not. That is up to MAC. So why don’t you unbunch your knickers and just enjoy the ride.

Complaining about Acid and foul language is nothing to what will happen in the reset. It is a good lesson on making sure you know the people who will be in your group. Less stress. Another point is that what rules or laws we want. Actually some may not want any law at all. Chaos! Lots of people will not like my rules and there again I may not like theirs.
By the looks of it many preppers will be killing each other long before we get to fight the real enemy.
Ain’t that some shit.

I always laugh about people who forever wring their hands about acid wretch. Some people{ braveheart} will tell him one day he makes ” great” posts and the next day tell him he’s a dirty sodomite. Makes you wonder why doesn’t everybody simply IGNORE HIM? If you don’t like his comments, don’t reply to him. If everybody ignored him he’d get frustrated and leave on his own accord, but he can always rely on getting attention from a regular few posters so he stays around. I’ll never understand why people simply don’t understand the way to get rid of him is to stop feeding him, what is so hard to understand about that?

The ignoring and skipping over posters that some assume will offend them I agree with.

The part about him not having any replies, and then eventually going away, i don’t. I have seen weeks go by that no one replied to him, the resident faggot; and to wwti the resident queen of atheists….and yet they hang around and somebody will eventually send them a thumbs up and they are back in the saddle again.

It doesn’t bother me what they say until they start making threats or say they wish someone would die…like me, of which they both have said in the past. I don’t recall asking for their removal, but they maybe should have been censored for making threats like wwti has done to me on many occasions.

I don’t mind that he has returned, as long as he stays on his side of the fence, I won’t bother him by telling him where he is headed with his atheist mindset, and degrading my Saviour, by referring to him as a queer.

I bought seeds a few years ago from ht tp://www.seedman.com/ and had almost 100% germination on everything but the tobacco. I didn’t know at that time that tobacco seeds have to be kept on top of the soil so that they will be in the sunlight to germinate.

Also, some of the larger hard seeds need to be soaked and/or scored ahead of planting.

True. I have grown New Zealand spinach from seed in the past. The seeds are very hard and need to be soaked. They take forever to germinate! But once you have them planted it is a good green and you can take cuttings several times a week and the stuff grows back (be careful, in some areas this could be invasive).

i dont see your link but i think i’ve read the article you’re referencing. i put wet paper towel in the bottom of a tupperware and put the lid on it and set it in a window sill. i’ve had good luck with my other seeds using this method but the survival vault seeds have done nothing in 2 weeks

If the person can’t grow corn what makes you think they will be able to grow anything you mentioned?

I don’t get why you are stuck on growing stuff indoors. Micro greens? Whatever. It sounds to me like they want to grow stuff outside which is normal.

This is a soil issue. The soil needs amendments: what type of amendments? I don’t know. I am guessing your soil is either all sand or all clay. Without amendments either type of soil (clay or sand) is basically useless as you have learned.

Buy the square foot gardening book by Mel Bartholomew. I got mine a few years ago at Lowes.

I’m planning on building some new raised beds using Hardy planking. It’s a cement siding material that is cheap and lasts forever. It’s about $7 for an 8″ x 12′ piece. I’ll use treated stakes at the corners to screw the planking to.

raised bed gardening is the best garden you can have, i grow more, bigger stuff in those beds than anything else, tomatoes do ok but i get better tomatoes in the ground, the raised beds rarely if ever need watering.

I built 2 raised beds last summer, 24 inches tall. I love them I got a third 16 inches tall filled with compost, and will add 8 inches as soon as the snow is off and I order more block. Will make 5 and 6. Once the house is in I will make more. I find them so much easie r. I filled them with deadwood for hugelkultur. They hold water and air very well.

Our soil is crap so we made raised bed rows and filled it with a few pallets of miracle grow garden soil and it has worked great. Use the leftover mash from runs and lees from wine and beer making and a little ash and it works great for plant food. Cow poo has weed seeds and will make a ton of weeds if you don’t sterilize it first. Rabbit poo is great and we have an endless supply. Also we make rabbit poop tea, fill a bucket 30% full with rabbit poo and top off with water and let it sit a week or so and it is great stuff!

The hardiplank is sorta flexi,,,, and expensive,
See if you can find landscape timbers? I know some areas have them cheap,,, by the time you do all the work with the corner posts and fastening the hardi plank to it then fill it up and realize it wont hold its shape and try to figure a way to fix it, you could have the timbers stacked, spiked, (3/8″ rebar works, pounded into a 3/8″ hole bored in timbers) filled and planted
A real permanent way is with concrete block bond beam units, dry stack them with a little rebar in them then fill with quickcrete, if you dont want to fool with mixing the quickcrete, just fill the blocks with the dry mix then water it, seems to work ok for setting fence post,

Kula, yep concrete blocks work great and you can usually find leftover ones on craigslist or other ads. They way I lay rebar in the ones that don’t have the notches for it is to just chip out a groove down the line with a hammer to lay your rebar in. You can also cut 18 inch or so pieces and drive them in the ground inside the holes of the blocks then fill them.

I checked prices for landscape timbers, and they are many times more expensive than Hardy planking. One 7″x8′ railroad tie is $13, and I would need at least twice as many of them as I would the 8″x12′ Hardy planking that only costs $8. The 3″x8′ landscape timbers are $4, which is still more expensive than Hardy planking.

So, adding an extra 4 stakes to the center of each side of each 4’x4′ Hardy planking box is no trouble at all. I have more time than money.

Growing corn is a waste of time in most areas unless you have a lot of acreage, water, and can handle the losses due to varmints like raccoons and deer. Most folks can actually buy sweet corn cheaper than they grow it, unless they are like my Dad and have about an acre fenced in, to keep the pests out.
Even then, raccoons will climb in for nearly ripe sweet corn and they will have to be caught in traps and killed or taken 100 (preferrably 200) miles away. If left unattended, a family of coons can wipe out a quarter acre of corn in a week. They will tear a whole plant down and chew into every ear with just enough bites to ruin it, and go on to the next. I hate them. We trapped and killed 15 in one year at our mtn. retreat after taking the first five nearly thirty miles away, and releasing. Some had distinguishing marks, and i swear after about a month those same damn coons were right back on my night camera at the deer feeder. I declared war. Problem wasn’t completely solved, but became manageable after that year. They still climb our fences in the spring and dig up some of the seeds. When it becomes too big a loss, I have two traps in the shed. The best lure is by taking tin foil and wrapping some dry dog feed in it and hanging directly over the spring board. Otherwise, the smart ones will paw the lure to the sides and spring the trap from the outside and then turn it upside down to get the bait. I had one smart old codgger that evidently had been trapped before, and he would turn the trap sideways and spring it and then pull the bait through, every night about 2am. I piled heavy rocks around the sides,back and top, until he finally ran out of options except going in through the doorway. A twenty five pound boar that stunk like rotten piss and fish. A real fine dead trophy.

For sandy soils that have very little nutrients, do like the coastal Indians/Native Americans did that lived in areas of high sand and salt concentrations. Add a fish to each hill/plant area. If you can’t get cheap or cull fish, than you are left to hydroponics or buying top quality top soil and adding it about a gallon to each hill/plant area. After the plants get a good start, add small amounts of liquid fertilizer around the stems about every two weeks, or longer, during drought.

I have container grown tomatoes, squash/zuchini, cucumbers and potatoes, etc. It takes some practice and you have to go easy with the liquid fertilizer, and heavy on the water for all and more for tomatoes.

Many vegetables, including green beans can be grown with much success in green house/ hydroponic gardens. The start up is costly and is why more people aren’t into it.
Youtube videos can help get you going with proven techniques. If done right, the green house method can work well in Tucson and other middle American. southwestern areas.
Think solar for your pumps and fans in a green house scenario. You must have fans and pumps running almost continuous. In colder climates a woodstove will keep you humping all winter for the greens/kale/lettuce, and some container crops.

@passin…
I agree with you about the corn and coons. That’s why I stopped raising sweet corn and started buying it from a farmer down the road at $15.00 a bag (50 ears to a bag). I can’t grow sweet corn (to can and freeze enough to eat all year) for that price. Diesel is cheap but the labor and headache of preparing the ground, cultivation, side dressing, irrigation and COONS is more than I care to deal with. I had five 120 foot rows of sweet corn several years ago and the coons ate (ruined) half of it. I was finally able to trap two and dispatched them with a 22LR HP. The farmer raises over a thousand acres of regular corn and plants a 3-5 acre tract of sweet corn hidden inside his regular corn field and moves it around every year. Apparently that helps to deter both four legged and two legged critters.

Good to see someone else has had to eliminate the aggravating, rabies spreading varmints.

On the sweet corn thing; I used to buy mine at the farmers market, and then one year there was so much rain, no one could get the gardens in until late. Even then some could not plant corn because of the long maturity date.

I heard about a farmer that had a roadside market and cooler, about two counties away. I thought he would have the good stuff and we went and bought four of the fifty ear sacks to share with my neighbor.

A week later, the neighbor came by and said we got screwed.

What happened, was that the farmer planted the sweet corn and the field corn on the exact schedule that put both crops pollinating at the same time. They cross pollinated, and the sweet corn was tuff and not sweet.

We had already canned 24 pints, before we even tried any.
Live and learn.

I wish I had fish for my sandy soil! I have deadwood, and am having good luck with hugelkultur beds. Along the front, I scattered wildflower seeds over about a half acre, and by year 3 I had much improved soil without working at it. I also get thousand of flowers. On Texas prairie acreage I put out pounds of black oil Sunflower seeds and every year they increased humus in the soil. Like a farmer uses vetch or clover. Only sunflowers add a lot more biomass every year. In a garden you can haul soil if you want, but on acreage it isn’t practical. My neighbor bought umpteen dump truck loads to fill in a water drainage spot on his property and flooded the other neighbor. They are up to attorneys now. Glad I am on the hill above their heads.

I have heard about the natives in the desert southwest that planted corn with other plants: corn, a bean plant, and a squash (like zucchini). There was a cool name for it. Bean plants are a legume so they are able to fix nitrogen in the soil as a natural process. The squash plant will spread out and provides shade which means water is not lost to evaporation. The corn plant ends up being something for the bean plant to climb on.

Certain types of beans and peas are a good compliment to grow in with corn. Don’t make the mistake i did one year. I wanted field peas like my grandparents used to grow with their corn. After growing for a while it was evident that the peas were vivacious little duckers, and began out growing the corn. They completely overtook the corn plants and smothered them out. In fact the peas took off running and pulled down the fencing in some areas. With all the work in picking and shelling, and then removing the mass that covered my garden like kudzu, I was pissed. for all the work, we had about five good meals of the peas, and the wife says, with a nasty drawn face, “these taste too much like blackeyes for me, so i don’t want anymore”. so phuck me!

From now on, unless a total collapse, I’ll buy my field peas in a can.

Sugar pop, it is called Three Sisters planting and will only work well if he uses landrace varieties adapted to his location. I gave him a website with the exact varieties he can use. The corn supports the bean, the bean provides nitrogen, the squash has prickles to deter pests and shades the soil to reduce evaporation. The combination provides complete protein and nutrients for health. Every year the combination improves soil tilt and increases soil organic matter as well as improving water retention. Planting appropriately improves soil microbial life and expands the species that grow well. No digging in amendments, spending too much money, or backbreaking labor. For the KISS version, I recommend Ruth Stout’s No Work Gardening book. Her system is the easiest I have seen, but not the best for Tucson. It will work for anyone with 20 or more inches of rainfall, though.

Seed savers exchange has some nice heirloom varieties that work well for the three sisters, Stowels for the corn then any pole bean, squash is usually good with a kabocha, they have the one called Boston Marrow witch is a big squash, pretty decent flavor too, big orange thing with orange flesh, has huge leaves and long vines with lots of runner roots so it picks up moisture easy.

It resembles a small pumpkin with the orange rind and flesh.
In fact, I read that many northerners use it instead of pumpkin for their pies.

I made some using them and absolutely they are great, and better than some varieties of pumpkin. We grow the heirloom variety of pumpkin that is crooked neck and striped, with white flesh.
They are a milder tasting pumpkin and make a great combo….Apple pumpkin cake.

A friend in Scottsdale dumped a few pickup loads of horse manure and straw in his back yard, added peat, tilled it well, added compost he got from somewhere local over there, planted rye and clover then the next year chopped it all in did some testing to adjust the PH and his garden is bangin now,, but it took some work and resources, he at least had access to the manure from a friends horse ranch, so was just the hauling in his truck and grunt work shoveling, and i think the compost was from somebody who recycles restauraunt waste, once you get rolling you can generate a fair amount of compost yourself, can collect whatever clippings etc from neighbors too, i know most folks are dry scapeing now there, the thing i would think would be the toughest is the heat in your area,,,

I used to get free truckloads of mulch from the city. Used it to mulch most of my half acre. I had great gardens, did not dig anything in. The worms take care of that. It was heavy clay. Worked great. Too much labor, though! I refreshed the mulch every year or two, made rich soil. Clay holds a lot of water, makes a great garden with only mulch. Water under 16 inches is a bear.

South side, You really need to check out Geoff Lawton and Sepp Holzer. The hugelculture and Swales are extremely productive. Projects have been done in climates such as yours. You can google first what they say, what Others say about their methods, and then down load books if you like. Then you can also see what would grow, but sounds like you could choose what would grow using these methods. I did a thirty foot test patch last year that did awesome. I watered at the beginning when I planted, and then only once after a 3 week dry patch (with lots of wind) and that was just to be on the safe side. It was light at the roots watering. My tomatoes loved this method. I planted berry bushes, nut bushes, strawberries, and threw in some veggies for the heck of it. I live in western NY. We are going to expand to build more hugelculture sections this year rather than basic till gardens that require much more attention. We have lots of downed trees to use for the base within the structure.

southside I live near Kingman. our soil here has very little phosporus and extremely high alkaline. add bonemeal and sphagnum moss. I grow just about everything. lettuce, broccoli etc are winter crops here. Tomatoes do great but the have to have shade. beans, melons, Amaranth, peppers, squash just about anything. I planted my gardens so they get shade in the afternoon from my home. I add liquid bonemeal monthly during the season. all cold weather plants go in the garden in September. Price we pay for living in this hot ass desert.

My wife’s nephew is a Independent trucker.
He was one of the guys that on his dime transported
relief supplies to New Orleans after Katrina.
Independent trucking is a lifestyle.
You will never get rich.
Competing with corporations who
have the advantage of scale is really
hard.
If you are self employed you already lose 25-40
percent of your net income to taxes.
Personally I think if all independents
put away 3 months worth of food, parked
their trucks afterwards and wrote a letter to the
Lien holder, saying “come get if you can find it”.
Closed their bank accounts, and took the time off
to be with family, someone might take notice.
Really fast. National strike on everything.
What is an IRS agent going to eat? 1040 forms?
DEA agent can eat heroin( that would be fun).
EPA agent can drink Flint MI water?
BLM can eat sage brush?
I could go on. Kill the government,
if we don’t it will kill us.

Rebecca I’m in NW AZ and we get a whopping 8 inches a year.
I drip irrigate from a 500 Gal tank. I’ll be planting my beets on the 15th in the little garden. Tucson is hotter and I think drier. Got some GOJI berry bushes to go with the blackberries I planted 2 years ago.

Citizen,
I was afraid it would be about the same as Albuquerque. Nativeseeds dot Com has very low water varieties that would need less irrigation. I didn’t mention prickly pear, you can eat everything but the stickers. Maximilian Sunflower has edible tubers. Even traditional white people foods have low water varieties. At least you have a long season! I an making hugelkultur beds to hold water, but I have deadwood. Mulch.

I can’t believe the timing of this article. I just got off the phone with my brother who drives OTR delivering dry concrete mix across the South. His company let him go today. He has been with this company for around ten years with no tickets and no wrecks. No reason except that they didn’t need him anymore. He is 64 years old and hopefully will be able to find another job.

ObamaCare built age discrimination into the work place. It doesn’t matter the industry, if you are over fifty, you are screwed. Every relative I have over fifty that has found themselves out of work, has also found themselves near unemployable.

Age discrimination doesn’t seem to be a crime anymore under Obama. In fact the baby boomers seem to be an annoyance to Obama.

Don’t listen to most truckers they don’t know shit. Some do however. If your gonna drive a truck go to a local union barn. Do P and d working days. This is what I do I get 10 to 12 hrs daily and sleep in my bed at night. I go through dot inspections and get the wave through by the police. The equipment is old junk but it maintained and safe if it’s not I go to my boss and tell him get me another. He will do it to and rent a truck for me if need be. There is a shop and mechanic on duty all the time he even fuels up the truck for you changes bulbs whatever small repairs I need. The health insurance is gold plan paid for by company. For those that like line haul work you can bid for that. If you wanna work on the dock there is that too. The hourly rate could be a little better but health insurance is paid for. Dental vision hearing too. Union provides lawyers and accountants too. I realize some people don’t like unions. this isn’t an entry level trucking job though. You need to be able to drive a 53 foot trailer through city streets your gonna back up 15 times a day. Deal with customers collect payments use tow motors rig stuff. Manage your work. Call in stuff to office. Take pictures of damages to protect company from false claims and what not. If you don’t wanna touch freight then forget about it. For me I like it though. Sometimes I just sit waiting to be loaded getting paid hourly. I wouldn’t bother driving for a non union company that’s just me though. I was talking to a Canadian driver and he does damn good told me he does 10 trips a month and makes $100,000 a yr. trucking can pay if your with the right companies.

MREs along with shooting local game with an pellet rifle. My area is infested with giant racoons, frogs, possum, squirrel, lots of pigeons and other small birds that roost on big lights at night. There are always enough wild greens and mushrooms and fish, too.

Yea thats why im thinking of planting an absolute pod so that if all is gone I’ll have something as absolute last resort it will consist of items like the pipe 12 gage parts ammo means to make fire and boil treat water knife couple mre

Philo, heck, fresh meat is fresh meat. I plant lots of natives to feed wildlife on my property. Keeps them around for food, worst case scenario. What kind of pellet gun do you like? I have been looking around. Even practicing with a slingshot these days.

MRE’s are expensive and LOADED with chemicals (read the ingredients) and very temp. sensitive. Look up the shelf life vs. temperature and see what I mean. You might as well have dehydrated McDonalds hamburgers lol. Unless you have a good tolerance for dow chemical food and a 40 degree storage place you might want to think about freeze dried or deyhydrated instead.

As to my resort post earlier this week having trouble getting some friends do community defense ,thnx to all your input was in Invaliable ,i now have 3 out of 10 who agree , I really thank everyone for there knowledge D.C out stay everyone

This article neglects to mention the upside of the economy, where travel agents booking uber-luxe, carbon spewing zillion dollar vacations from Michelle-Marie Antoinette “Let them vacation in Aruba” Obama are up a staggering 8 gazillion percent.

Aljamo, that’s a point, the Boyz are having a great economy, the rest of us, not so much. I am retired now, almost have my place paid off. Garden helps. Just say no plan for buying most stuff. The life of Riley.

Talked briefly with an executive with Union Pacific Rail road a few days ago. 800 locomotives are in storage. When things slow down like this they just scrap the rail cars. Think I’ll start on that greenhouse today and get some seedlings started.

The US economy actually began it’s decline/collapse stage during the last quarter of Clinton’s reign of terror in the White House. With the destruction of the twin towers, America’s symbols of our economic power, the country will never be the same again. Since America decided not to rebuild them, that is symbolic and prophetic of what is happening, and what is still yet to come. America no longer has a real economy. It’s based on credit creation and the ‘illusion’ that America is still great. Since the early 90’s, interest rate manipulation and artificial money creation via deficit spending have become America’s number one industry. It is no longer possible for the US economy to function normally thanks to our offshoring the majority of our industrial output. That being said, I have confidence in the Federal Reserve to continue to help the economy limp along while they continue to manipulate, and re-manipulate their propaganda. They will simply let unemployed people continue to fall off the metrics they use to create their false economic reality.

You ain’t seen nothing yet. The trucks will literally stop, and the food supply will be cut off completely by October of 2017.. and from I was told is that is the cabal succeeds with another massive false flag all over the country which I believe will happen before the December of 2016, this year, will be done intentionally to cancel the elections.. the murderer of Finicum was done intentionally to let the public know that they will kill all of us, and they killed the man and I suspect that his family will suffer the same faith..things will be so bad by November of this year that I cannot and do not see them allowing Donald Trump to get into the whole hour because trump will be firing off a lot of people and arresting many, assuming that he is on our side which I still cannot prove..people have a bad habit of speaking in the behalf of people.. I never do such things because I know that people will do things…people say that our own military will not for in ht the American people.. I have news for you, 19,20, 30 year men in the current US Army will be firing on us, raping our women and shooting us men with. 50 cal machine gun fire and dumping our bodies into mass Graves right her in our cities..and since I watched that video of what they did to Finicum, that proves to me that the very scenario that I am discussing will in fact take place on a national level..and they will get help from the Chinese, the Russians, the Mexican army, Nato, their allies the muslim jihadist and other nationals will be entering the US to finish us off..like on w special forces guy told me , every time a you are attacked in your country, where you are is where you are literally stuck and that you will not be able to leave but he said that if you stuck there and you have guns, then the attacking army will have extreme difficulty taking out the people…so who ever has been advising us to arm our selves is really telling us the truth..they are looking our for our safety and future..i have accepted the fact that I will be facing that threat in my city in my area on my street, and I ain’t running. I have hearr some really bad horrific stories about invading armies entering villages and what soldiers do when come in and its real bad, very bad bad, things I heard..hell is literally at our doors.

“and they will get help from the Chinese, the Russians, the Mexican army, Nato”

They might get the mexican drug cartels to play, but China and Russia have no interest in committing genocide, especially when it would turn into an international incident.

The international community would hit the ceiling if NATO came into this country (or any other country) and started killing citizens…what, you think the rest of the world would just watch? I don’t think so, because they know they could be next.

I’m a climate change skeptic but all bullshit aside its hitting almost 60 degrees in New England in February this is crazy warm. Last year the temps were about 17 degrees average. I think we are gonna get an early growing season this year. It snowed once about 8 inches and it’s all melted away. I’m starting to believe this global warming hype. Profits earned because of the cold and snow like removal and skiing slopes must be taking a hit. I will take it though it’s great for a change. Haven’t burned that much heating oil either and its cheap this year too.

So… my composite raised bed frames are constructed, but when I tried to site them the other day, I couldn’t find a level place to put them!!! Wonky yard:)

Really feel like I am slowing down guys. Been working harder as of late, than at any other point in my life. Part of it is the relocation to a more rural area… I travel miles to find items that used to take me just a few minutes to find. Spent yesterday on the road and came home exhausted. I have a vehicle to unload today and some stuff to put together that my husband will help with later. He is still working full time, and that is good because I am buying PMs, food and other necessities- but I won’t get much help with the property until he retires. We are light years ahead though, of where we were last year at this time. And light years ahead of the neighbors in terms of security, house hardness, and preps.
Yesterday, I was at a Tuesday Morning store that was packed to the gills with inventory. I asked the manager who was checking me out, how the truck deliveries were going. She said a curious thing. She said that trucks were coming to “her” because she “moved” things. She said that many other stores north of Houston were stagnant. This goes along with the observation that hard goods (non food items) are moving off the shelves very slowly. Yesterday, at Bed, Bath and Beyond- the store was like a mausoleum. I saw their best bedding brand half priced at TMs… just 2 miles away. And the manager told me she was having problems with an overstocked comforter section. Well, those comforter sets are nearly $400 at BB&B. We are in hard times. Nobody is buying this stuff.

Few comments here. Don’t give up on seeds that don’t germinate. Soak them overnight in h2o2 and you’ll hopefully get half to germinate. The three sisters is good if you eliminate the beans. I’ve tried it a couple years and the beans always choke the corn lessening pollination and stunting growth.
And yes eisen aka acid has not changed over the years. He’s threatened members of my family also in the past. He’s a proven liar. He will not survive shtf because he’s such a jerk.
Molon labe

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